Andrew R Gross

Things have been very busy for the last few weeks.  I've had too much going on to maintain a blog responsibly, so I'll try to compromise by maintaining a blog irresponsibly.  Here is a poorly composed report of what I've been up to. Work:  Work has gotten very stimulating.  As the lab manager of a stem cell research lab, I've found my work to be fulfilling for the entire time I've been working at Cedars-Sinai.  We study diseases by collecting blood from patients with a disorder, then modifying the blood cells so they revert back into the stem cells we all grow out of.  It's the same person's cells, but now we've deaged them to 9 months before the person was born.  We can then try to grow them into cells like the ones in the person today: heart cells, brain cells, kidney cells, whatever.  Which has several big applications. 1) Cloning a part of a person could let us make rejection-free replacement organs.  Not DONOR organs, but a fact...

Another small project.  I made a book display stand for my stepfather. Laser cut book display stand Reddit.com/r/diy link 

Tomorrow is my 31st birthday, and I'm blessed with incredible health.  Which makes this a fitting time to make a statement that I feel needs to be said about my mortality.  I believe that it is most likely that when I die, it will be due to cancer.  And furthermore, I don't consider this a bad thing. I went to a doctor for a general checkup last week, and asked to get my genome screened or sequenced in order to assess what hereditary diseases I'm at elevated risk for.  The doctor told me I was about five years early and that it wasn't an affordable or covered service yet, so I guess I'll just have to wait.  When I mentioned that I was fairly confident I'd die of cancer, she was taken aback.  "Why would you say that?" she asked.  Her tone was respectfully professional but without an effort to hide her disapproval that I would prognosticate my own cause of death.  Did she think I was being disrespectful to people with cancer?  Did she think I...

Three weeks ago, Julie and I went camping.  Twice each year, our friend Ann organizes a game in the forest called the Fox Hunt.  It's a bit like hide-and-seek.  Foxes are given a twenty minute head start to go hide in the woods, after which the hunters pursue them.  The foxes attempt to make it back to the base they left from without being tagged, however their trails are marked with surveying flags. The dogs have gotten really good at camping The result is surprisingly tense.  Both sides have huge advantages and disadvantages.  The foxes simply have to go into the woods and come back without running right into someone, which seems easy, however the woods we use lie in a valley carved by a stream, which funnels people back towards the middle and makes it hard to circle wide.  Eventually, you've got to come down from the sides to come back.  The hunters, meanwhile, just need to follow a brightly lit trail.  In practice, though, it isn...

Because I've been asked what I might like for my birthday, I made the following list of ROV parts which would make reasonable presents: If you purchase anything, please mark it in the sheet as purchased to avoid redundant purchases.

Sadly, as Glenn Greenwald points out, "...nothing unites people behind the leader more quickly, reflexively or reliably than war."   Unfortunately, most Republicans as well as many Democrats -- including Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer and House minority leader Nanci Pelosi -- have stated their support of Trump starting a war with a country allied with another nuclear superpower.  According to FiveThirtyEight.com's Perry Bacon, "Most Senators Support Trump's Syria Airstrike" .  He provides a list, stating that only six senators have come out vocally against Trump's strike.  His list is very incomplete, but it's a good place to start.  Here are the leaders who actually learned something from our disastrous wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Please lend your support to these individuals and message me we with any I'm missing at andrew@shrad.org. Senators Kirstin Gillibrand - Senator of New York "The chemical attacks by the Assad...

I made a new Instructable post.  It's a chess set I made for Jack for Hannukah. Instructable link: "Tabletop-to-vertical Convertible Chessboard" Tabletop / Vertical Convertible Chessboard

I recently saw The Great Wall.  It's honestly an interesting movie, because it is such a specific cultural artifact.  The movie is made to try and impress Americans with the resourcefulness and capability of the Chinese.  The result is meta.  The movie isn't really great, but it shows that Chinese producers, directors, actors, and special effects teams can produce mindless big-budget spectacle just like Hollywood.  And it's impressive in a purely technical way.  Additionally, the film itself is literally about a team of Chinese warriors engaging in a cultural exchange with a greedy European thief searching for treasure in the medieval orient.  Every shot is the fulfillment of stereotypes, both loving and hoke.  The Chinese general explains how her army is strong because of their selflessness and their discipline.  The American brags of his self reliance. Overall, it's fun.